Assume

‘Assume‘ is the word prompt we are writing on for 5 minutes today in the #Five Minute Friday community of writers.

We assume all sorts of things in our daily lives, we make judgements, decisions based on our assumptions whether we have evidence or not to base them on.

One thing I do assume though is that I know! I assume I know what is best; what is best for me; what is best for those around me and occasionally even what is best for my country and the world! And when I assume I know what is best I often by-pass God. I know what is best so along I go that road which I think is best; I assume the obstacles along the way are not right and so I try to get rid of them, go round them, even rant at them!

When I assume I know what is best for others I step in, I try to direct, I try to lift burdens, ease situations, with the goal of making someone’s life easier or happier. In my assumptions, in my actions, in my interference I am assuming that I know better than God and that God needs a little helping along to make things right or good or easy.

I assume I know better than God!

I wouldn’t normally admit that, it is audacious thing to say! Yet it is my actions which betray me; my lack of trust which leads me to want to control; my dictating to God which shows a lack of submission to His Sovereign ways and will.

Thankfully God is a gracious God and He leads me back to Himself again and again till I come to a place of acceptance and say ‘not my will, not my way, not my timing, but Yours Lord.’.

Many

I’m joining with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers today to write for 5 minutes on the word prompt: Many.

Today I have many hundreds of scattered thoughts, they are all over the place, mainly to do with all the things I have to do and that panics me; disturbs me and scatters me all the more as I wonder where to start.

So I choose to sit for a moment and breathe. I choose to be still, to center myself in God. Before running head-long into the many tasks and jobs to do. I stop; I pause; I lift my hands and I acknowledge that He is God and that He has all these matters in hand.

I pause and pray. I pause and breath. I pause and praise:

1LORD, my heart is not proud;

my eyes are not haughty.

I don’t concern myself with matters too great

or too awesome for me to grasp.

2Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,

like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.

Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Psalm 131

Ignore

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday: write for five minutes on a one-word prompt. The prompt today is “Ignore”.

When I see a word prompt I think, I reflect, I question what does this mean, what does it mean for me? So today the prompt makes me ask, what do I ignore and what do I give my attention to?

When there is an unwelcome task needing done it is easy to procrastinate, to ignore it, to distract and give my attention elsewhere.

What about God? Is it easy to ignore Him, to turn our attention elsewhere? Yes, often it is! I can fill my time with reading; watching TV, distractions anything but actually get before Him. Sometimes I don’t do this intentionally, it is just part of life and just happens when life creeps in and God gets pushed out.

But yes, sometimes it can be willful (sadly)! This happened to the Israelites too, they often willfully turned away from God, they willfully served and worshipped other gods including themselves:

Remember what it says:

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”

Hebrews 3:15

About 7 years ago I was reading through the book of Hebrews and the above verse was really impressed upon me TODAY when you hear my voice. So a day came when I found a new on-line community bible study; I thought mmh that sounds good, wonder if any of my friends would like to do this with me, but doubts and insecurities crept in and I was about to ignore that voice when I remembered the verse: “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts“

So I put it out there and was overwhelmed by the response, seven years later we are still going strong, meeting together on-line over the Word. We have been enriched by the daily study of the word; we have grown stronger in our faith by the support and fellowship from one another, we have been blessed, so blessed and I could have so easily ignored God’s voice and we would have missed out on so much.

What are you ignoring today? Where are you focusing your attention? Are you missing out on a blessing because you are ignoring God’s voice?